I think we all have those days where we want to pull a Chris McCandless and go be a mountain man. If you weren't in finance, what would you do?
I have a knack for extreme stuff. I think I'd get my free-fall skydiving certification and PADI certification and maybe do that stuff. I went skydiving for the first time this summer and it was a fucking thrill - definitely something I want to do again. Another crazy item on the bucket list is to shark dive without a cage. With that said, I think I'd maybe instruct courses in those areas if I wasn't in finance. Or do some personal training, but I think that'd be a tough living financially.
.
Original. Thanks!
Thanks, AndyLouis for the nice graphic...if that is who I think it is, that guy is a total douche canoe
yeah Dan Blitz.. idolized by a few friends of mine. idk he's the first guy i thought of, though yes i agree on the douche canoe part, i followed him on IG for a bit and got bored
Understood. I mean...I idolize him as well if it was just the bitches and guns thing...just the free life style. The part that annoys me is the whole beating women thing, etc. If I'm not mistaken, he's also raised on daddy's money, too.
I'd like to be a cult leader.
Interview Question - What would you want to do if Finance/IBD Didn't Exist? (Originally Posted: 12/15/2014)
Is there a "best" way to answer this question. Basically I've had some interviewers ask me if IBD didn't exist what would I want to do after college? Should I say something finance related or just a passion / hobby I have?
"You make more money as a leader, but you have more fun as a follower".
I'm not even in finance, but flying was a dream of mine, so I'd be an airline pilot. With Cathay Pacific. It's the BB of airlines.
Hi Bay Street, I attend a non-target with3.0gpa but have flight experience from when i sat in a plane last year. What are my chances of breaking into the BB of airlines as a pilot? Is Cathay an upper BB? Where is it on the league tables? thx
No way, Jose. Singapore Airlines, or Emirates, maybe. Better service all around, and cuter air stewardesses.
I'd say Advertising or Tech (fields I deem interesting). Don't know what those answers would result to. But I think as long as you could sell your way it would be okay.
Waiting for other responses as I'm getting curious too.
I don't know necessarily if it is the "right" answer, but I'd say law, or maybe medicine. Those are my personal choices though. I'd imagine a really good answer is a field you are also interested in, that shares some characteristics with finance, and you can explain why they are similar and why you like finance/IBD better.
Invent IBD - or is that a cop out?
Male model
I you weren't doing finance what would you do? (Originally Posted: 07/19/2012)
Discuss.
Not allowed to say consulting, accounting, or law.
probably consulting, accounting, or law
lawyer
Tech
Id say consulting, accounting, or ... say, um law?
3rd world country warlord. Just kidding.
I'd be a musician or policy/political analyst or theoretical research anthropologist. Does working at the FED help towards any of those ends?
Since you've excluded the only things I'd be qualified to do, I guess that leaves politics or entrepreneurship.
Healthcare management
Engineering
Lawyer or tech entrepreneur.
.
Politics or entrepreneurship
sitting on my carpet, eating my hose
Hospital Management
Math.
gym teacher.... top 10 under-rated career right thur
I keep getting older, and the girls stay the same age.
Well Jamie, funny you should ask this. I am actually starting to write a business plan to pitch to a few family members to open/expand on an existing family business. So I guess entrepreneurship.
Petroleum engineering
Tour Caddy
ESPN 'analyst'
Pilot
Mortician. It's about to be a booming industry.
If not this job, then what? If not finance, then what? (Originally Posted: 12/24/2012)
I assumed this would be a typical question that had been discussed many times, but from searching, I could not find cases of it. I apologize if my searching wasn't done well enough, but I am interested in what the FT employed posters would say.
If you weren't doing what you are now, what would you have picked to pursue as a job?
If it couldn't be in finance, what would you have picked as a career?
Please try to give as serious of answers as you can since I really am interested in what the range (or lack thereof) would be from this crowd.
Thanks to anyone who replies.
$SCI
I would answer it honestly. What else are you passionate about besides finance? I'm not entirely sure if this is correct way to approach it , but for my interviews I simply stated that I wanted to be an engineer before getting interested in finance.
Film director. Diplomat / Political activist. Physicist / Astronaut. Writer / Philosopher. Hotelier.
Can't really picture myself doing the same thing for an entire lifetime either way.
Politician/Lobbyist. I say this because its a sweet gig. You get a good amount of vacation days. You get paid well, a decent salary and phenomenal perks. You will develop connections with some of the most powerful people in the country.
Do politicians really get paid that well? I assumed that most of the time it was that wealthier individuals tend to become politicians, as opposed to getting paid from being a politician...
In-house counsel.
Got this in an interview once. Said I'd go sailing.
Well the salaries from the government is only a couple hundred thousand, but you have to keep in mind, their income from other ventures is MUCH more. One of them alums from my school used to be an analyst at a PE firm in D.C., and they had a congressman there as an advisor. That congressman got paid 350k for just lending the firm his name and title. Their rationality is that a PE firm will be able to attract plenty more investors and have a lot more credibility with a congressman on the board. Many companies such as fortune 500 companies have former politicians on their boards. Other things include speaking fees. I know Congressman and Senators could make anywhere from $10k - $15k a day just by showing up to events and speaking. Most of the income you make will be outside of your government salary. I would choose being a politician over any position in finance, but getting your foot in the door is WAY WAY harder than finance.
But did this guy actually go into politics from the beginning of his career? Or did he do some finance first and then politics?
as a politician you have the moral burden of knowing you are in the scummiest profession of the entire world (yeah a lot worse than finance)
Speech writer.
If you had to have a job that could not be finance related, what would it be? (Originally Posted: 04/27/2015)
I find myself thinking a lot about possible outcomes in my life if I had chose differently about one thing or another, this came up. I'd probably want to do something with software/code writing.
What do you monkeys think? What would you choose and why?
I gave you a silver banana for having the same idea as me but as a speechwriter in another universe I hope you realize its one fucking word.
If only my iPhone autocorrect knew it is one word
Also, why?
Pro baseball GM. A mixture of quantitative and subjective analysis of baseball players. You are basically playing in a real life fantasy league. Also, taking friends to your box to watch games would be fucking sweet. I'd wake up each morning with a smile glued across my face.
Writing code sounds miserable, life is too short to do that unless you are a prodigy. That being said, different strokes for different folks.
Professional soccer player sucks I didn't start to play till I was 14 years. However still manage to get to a very good level during my high school career would've probably being really good if I played as a kid.
I'd have bought a small bar on a Caribbean Island and be a bartender. I may still. I don't think it's necessary to say why.
Or the academic route and be a tenured philosophy professor. It would be great to get paid to think and talk shit all day long.
I thought we decided on Costa Rica...
I know a disbarred lawyer who did this. Might be the greatest life ever.
Photojournalist or travel blogger, anything that allows me to travel, have fun and make some money at the same time
An influential writer and/or a reputable radio host. It's great to be heard.
investment banker fo life
seriously if IB doesn't pan out for me, I have no clue where life will take me!
This was more or less the inspiration for the thread. I never thought about it before.
I knew there would be some funny answers on here, I like the people that have a list of like 5 ready to go. Lol.
Where's @DickFuld? He needs to come here and shit on my thread already.
High School AP Teacher. Teaching Honors/AP is an easy pass as you don't have to deal with as much problem students. Seems easy enough, and probably won't get boring especially since I like to teach.
Too bad my chalkboard skills are horrible, though in a few years everything will be transitioned into chromebooks and powerpoints.
Military Special Forces. To be part of a team bound by life and death, closest thing to a brotherhood. If it wasn't for the pointless wars we seem to be sent on these days, I'd have done a few years military (I'm UK). I dont see any glory or heroism in it, the being part of something like that is what appeals.
Something that pays me to travel around the world while working less than 40 hours a week. Experiencing new cultures and places is fun, and so is meeting new people.
Anthony Bourdain's gig
Playboy photographer
I would become a rapper. If I only I could rap.
Pornstar
My two passions outside of finance are basketball and fashion (well, not all fashion, just menswear). I'd love to work for an NBA team in some capacity. Being a GM would be cool, but even just being a video coordinator would be cool as well (that's how Eric Spoelstra got his start in the NBA). On the menswear side, I think being a buyer for one of the high-end department stores (Bergdorf Goodman, Barneys, Saks 5th Ave) would be sweet -- just traveling around the world to different mills and fashion houses and choosing what to stock in the store. I wouldn't want to be a tailor or a designer or anything along those lines. I know a bespoke tailor here in NYC who is Savile Row-trained and works 12 hours a day, 6 days a week for an ever-growing client base. That's not much better than IB hours.
How does everybody feel about plastic surgeon? Strictly doing implants in Beverly Hills
I would say an air force fighter pilot or a commercial pilot
selling wine in latin america
OH WAITLOL
I'd sell drugs and would have the best managed operation in town (negative NWC from day 1).
Would probably work as a soft eng. for SpaceX.
Would most likely have been a zoologist
Something along the lines of astronomy or biology... Or a complete different path and solely focus on being an athlete, preferably doing something like soccer or MMA.
As for explanations, I'm just fascinated by science in general and astronomy particularly gets me (blame mainly Neil DgT for this). And for the sports, I've always been doing them; I just absolutely love sports. Would be fun to take a professional career although you would have to sacrifice everything else due to the fierce competition.
1) Park ranger somewhere sick like Glacier or Yellowstone
2) Floyd Mayweather
Probably a mountaineer or a travel blogger.
Department of State or the Gates Foundation.
NBA GM - I had an offer to be an advance scout for the Knicks (scouting other NBA teams) or finance out of college and I chose the money. I don't regret my decision one bit, but it would've been cool being around basketball 24/7. It's always a fallback option.
Poet/musician like Leonard Cohen (without my manager stealing my retirement fund). It's a hard slog to build a reputation and career but you need to come from a certain place to come up with lines - of words or another variety if that's your thing.
And then there's the groupies....
Movie director/ producer.
Sales for an international company that would allow me to travel around the world!
Ski instructor somewhere in Utah or Colorado
enterprise sales..... close deals, eat steaks, models and bottles on company dime, get super close with f500 ceo's as friends.
National Geographic photographer. You get to travel the world and it generally seems like one of the less dangerous photojournalism gigs.
Or a museum curator. Sounds extremely nerdy and slow-paced, but after working in a loud, fast-paced environment I could think of nothing better than walking around a musuem all day by myself. I'm also a big history guy so I live for this shit.
guitar hero rockstar playing in mainstream rockband (Aerosmith, Rolling stones. Bon jovi, Gn R...)
From a pure fantasy standpoint? Formula 1 racing driver, fighter pilot (looked into it, but didn't have the vision), PGA golfer, owner/manager of a high-end car dealership group, or host of Top Gear (or something similar).
Successful club promoter in a major non U.S. city
Automotive engineer
Yacht Captain. Frickin love boats.
One of my friends from Highschool does this. Went into the Coast Guard and now he just Yachts all day long up the east coast and in Caribbean. Kid's dumb as a rock but damn he's living the dream.
PGA Tour golfer, that's the life right there.
Porn Star Cop Teaching Professor Nightclub Owner
I plan to do the last three when I quit IB
I'd be a pornstar
Thank god that didn’t happen!
I’d be a wilderness guide for an international guiding outfit. You get to travel a lot, and see things that most people will never see in their lifetimes.
Pornstar !!
I would be a humanities professor. Just talk bullshit all day long , write a few bullshit papers, and get tenured. Sounds like a good little life to me.
food critic
Ski patrol or Wakeboard instructor Own a watersports store somewhere in Northern Michigan, maybe on Torch lake or something
comedian, basketball player, physical therapist, youtube sensation lol
Airforce pilot for sure
Entrepreneurship as a career. Dating supermodels as a hobby.
Also, why would you want to "pull a Chris McCandless" considering he died while out on his adventure....
"So What Would You Do If You Couldn't Do Finance?" (Originally Posted: 05/30/2012)
“So if you couldn’t do finance, what would you be doing?”
That’s a question a lot of us can get during interviews. Or its cousin, “So what do you like to do outside the office?” You know why they ask it: the airport test—can I work with this person on a daily basis? What do they like to do when they aren’t thinking about work?
I gotta be honest, the first time I got this question in an interview, I had no answer prepared. I just muttered something about maybe starting my own trading shop without providing any specifics, so I definitely got dinged on that one. But In The Flesh learns from his mistakes…
Some of the monkeys on here who have met me in person know about my passionate love affair with heavy metal. If I was asked what I liked to do outside the office, I immediately started talking about it. And by the luck of the draw, one interviewer happened to share my interest! I’m pretty sure we ended up spending more time talking about heavy metal than about trading. If you have that unique interest, share it—talk a little about how you discovered it and why you love it so much.
You may find it hard to believe, but not everybody feels comfortable telling the interviewers about what they like to do. A fellow headbanger was adamant that she wouldn’t discuss the music, because she was convinced that the interviewers would judge her negatively because of it. Others think that they need to frame their hobbies to fit the job or make something up to make themselves seem more committed.
In the end, you can approach this much the same way as you would approach the dreaded, “What is your biggest weakness?” question: Just be honest and discuss it in a way that puts you in a positive light.
And in case you’re wondering about my answer, it went something like this:
“One of my other big interests outside of business is music. I’ve been listening to rock and heavy metal music for years, and I’ve been fortunate to hear some truly amazing stuff over the years. I love exploring the depth and quality of a musician’s entire catalogue and get beyond the big hits. So if I couldn’t do finance, I’d share the results of all that hard listening with the world by hosting my own radio show, either online or traditionally. I’d love to see people’s reaction to having, say, Elton John and death metal being played within a few minutes of each other. I think it’d be really interesting.”
Your response to this question would be…?
Yeah, exactly. That doesn't sound all that bad some days...
If you can't run the bank, rob the bank.
Money = Banking > Women = Dating Coach > Power = Politician
First you get the money, then you get the power, then you get the women. Dumbass.
Engineering. Some sort of Biotech maybe
Pro Surfer
Medicine.
teacher, grade school
poker.
started playing casually with friends while in high school, then moved onto online/a little casino play in college. kind of had to give it up due to time constraints but if i had a lot of free time, would definitely love getting back into the game.
Mechanical or Electrical Engineering
I honest and truly would go into Topiary....I was marveled by it as a child and wish I took it up and made a career from it. But money talks and bullshit jobs dont pay the bills.
Firefighter or Astronomy
Make spreadsheets of every one of my schools alumni who are in all the different industries which I could go in to and then cold call every single one of them, while upkeeping my spreadsheet meticulously.
You and I think alike. I also maintain a massive spreadsheet to keep in touch with my contacts. :-)
A degenerate Gambler
own a nightclub in Milan, a house on Lake Como and a yacht on the med
balling in the NBA brah
Sports Agent (ie Jerry Maguire)
Hang gliding instructor.
Bodybuilder and open my own gym
Golf pro.
Start my own startup.
Professional degenerate. Na, but in all seriousness opening up a gym sounds pretty sweet.
Tour Pro for sure.
Pro Golfer and teach after retiring.
CIA Case Officer
porn star
Fly fishing guide or writer. Two activities that almost necessitate heavy drinking and transcendental perspective.
Are you in the NE? I fish upstate NY and Vermont.
I like this a lot - same here.
Hey, you can do both - the thing about FFguide is money... I heard they don't make a lot... but you live a life of wilderness far aways from printers and cubicles...
percussionist, classical
Producer of an entertainment agency in East Asia. Do you have any idea the kind of revenue those cookie-cutter Korean popstars are pulling in right now?
Lean cuisine coupon dealer
open a brewery... I'm a homebrewer and this is the ultimate dream, if it was to become a reality I'd drop buyside finance in a second
Genealogist
career counselor
Philosopher - not just the drunken arm chair type but an actual professor of Philosophy.
Racing cars or some sort of position in the automotive industry.
Become a pro Thai Boxer and move to Thailand, while working on some Physics in my spare time...
I'm surprised it took so long for someone to say "brewmaster."
Pro fighter. MMA.
Fly-fishing lodge owner, Pro poker player, Brewery owner. Take your pick.
If I couldn't do finance, I would try to open up a casual dining restaurant. If that worked, I would either grow the business or train as a chef and open up a more formal restaurant.
Professional fitness model
Physcology n philosophy... Then make my own talk show or blog
If I wasn't doing finance, I'd have more time to do my girlfriend.
On a more serious note, 'though, I'd probably run my own set of supplement shops and maybe (quite possibly not due to too severe price-ruining competition from large branches) even a gym.
Rapper
lol
Drift in Tokyo.
Food critic
fighter pilot -> really good fighter pilot -> astronaut
three-card monte operator
Probably default back to poker for money. Not sure if I have any other passions besides finance that could be viable career opportunities. Club owner/manager could be a sweet gig.
History teacher
become a professional downhill skier.
Med School
Sell crack to the kids
I'd be careful about talking for too long about outside interests like death metal during an interview. Perhaps the interviewer wants to be sure you are an interesting person, but you do not want to waste valuable time that could be used convincing the person that you can actually do the job you are applying for. I have interviewed kids who get so excited over a common interest that they think will give them a leg up that they talk way too long about it...20 minutes later im like "nice kid, but i have no idea whether he can do this job".
What would you choose to do if you know a career in finance is doomed? (Originally Posted: 07/19/2014)
This is for those who had at least 1-2 years of work experience in finance already.
It probably won't (and shouldn't!) happen but just for the sake of this discussion let's say that you know AHEAD of everyone else that a career in finance is pretty much doomed. You know you can reasonably well find a suitable and respected job for yourself in the industry. Which career path would you take? I'm just curious.
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